COMPLIMENTS

The Thunder Bay Police Service is interested in your positive experiences with our members. If you wish to provide a compliment to an individual officer, or the Service in general, please see this form.

Alternatively, you can call the on-duty Watch Commander at all times at 807- 684-1200.

DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS

The following is from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director’s website:

Under the Police Services Act, disciplinary hearings are conducted by police services. The prosecutor and hearing officer are both designates of the chief, who is also responsible for discipline. The OIPRD does not manage discipline or disciplinary hearings.

Where complaints to the OIPRD are substantiated serious, they proceed to a disciplinary hearing.

Officers or retired officers of the rank of inspector or higher can conduct hearings, as can judges and retired judges. The OIPRD does not manage discipline or disciplinary hearings and is not a party to disciplinary hearings. OIPRD investigators may be called to testify in matters that were investigated by the OIPRD. PSA disciplinary hearings are open to the public.

Where a disciplinary hearing is held about a complaint, the police chief and police services board are required to provide a copy of the disciplinary hearing decision to the OIPRD. These decisions are required, by legislation, to be posted on the OIPRD website.​

Clear and convincing evidence

At a disciplinary hearing, the hearing officer must decide whether the allegations of misconduct have been proven on clear and convincing evidence. Clear and convincing evidence is a higher burden of proof than the standard of reasonable grounds, which is the threshold required to substantiate misconduct at the investigative stage.

Reasonable grounds

The Police Services Act states that there must be reasonable grounds to believe that misconduct occurred in order for a complaint to be substantiated. Reasonable grounds in a police complaints context are facts or circumstances of a case that would lead an ordinary and cautious person to believe that misconduct occurred. This belief must be more than a suspicion or an opinion of misconduct and must be objectively based on factual evidence.

Discipline

The Police Services Act provides guidance in imposing appropriate measures for misconduct and lists the following penalties and measures that may be imposed:

reprimand

direction to undergo specific counselling, treatment or training

direction to participate in a specified program or activity

forfeiture of pay or time off

suspension without pay

demotion

dismissal

If an officer is found guilty of misconduct, hearing officers take a number of factors into consideration regarding the final penalty. Similar to other hearings, past disciplinary hearing or court decisions may be submitted by both sides as arguments for an appropriate penalty. The officer’s previous record and work performance is also considered. The hearing officer will also take into consideration whether the officer shows remorse and takes responsibility for his or her actions.

Penalties for less serious conduct complaints may include an apology, a reprimand, direction to participate in counselling, treatment or training, forfeiture of pay or time off or suspension without pay.

Penalties for serious conduct complaints may include forfeiture of pay, suspension, demotion or dismissal.

Appeals

Both the officer and the complainant can appeal the findings of a disciplinary hearing to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) within 30 days of the decision. Both the complainant and the officer can seek leave to appeal the discipline imposed.

Confirm whether the public complainant is aware that he or she is entitled to be represented by legal counsel at the proceedings and whether he or she has waived the right to legal representation

Explain the roles of the parties at the proceeding and the process and the rights of each party, including the public complainant, to call witnesses, introduce evidence, object to evidence adduced, cross-examine witnesses, and make submissions on all motions and at the end of the hearing

Explain the role of the adjudicator in the proceedings, including his or her role in relation to the unrepresented public complainant

Confirm that the public complainant understands the process and his or her role in it

Ask the public complainant, at the appropriate time, if he or she would like to call witnesses

Ask the public complainant, at the appropriate time, if he or she would like to question each of the witnesses of the prosecution and the defence

Ask the public complainant if he or she would like to make submissions on all motions and at the end of the hearing

THUNDER BAY POLICE SERVICE DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS

Presided over by a Hearing Officer, the Tribunal is a quasi-judicial forum where allegations of serious breaches of the Code of Conduct (Reg123/99 of the PSA) against police officers are adjudicated. All parties, including the subject officer and public complainant, have the opportunity to present relevant evidence, tender exhibits and make submissions in support of their position.

Tribunal proceedings are open to the public unless a ruling has been made pursuant to exceptions provided for in section 9 of the SPPA, i.e. matters involving public security, intimate financial or personal matters. All proceedings are recorded verbatim and usually anything presented becomes part of the public record.